I tried everything myself on the guitar,
drums, saxophone and synthesizers. And
so it has a peculiarly idiosyncratic style. I
find it very endearing, kind of remote and
a bit scary.’
Elaborating on the theme in
International Musician Magazine in
December 1991, Bowie also talked of his
first links with soon-to-be collaborator
Brian Eno, ‘I played a great percentage
of everything on Diamond Dogs,’ he
recalled, ‘apart from the odd lead guitar,
and the bass and drums. But most of the
other lead guitars and the rhythm guitars
and the keyboards, and saxophones,
were just me. That was real playhouse
stuff. I just had a ball, with the late Keith
Harwood, who was the producer and
engineer on that and who was a great
buddy. I remember we were running
backwards and forwards with Eno, who
was in the studio next door doing Here
Come the Warm Jets, and we were dashing
in and out of each other’s studios. We
hadn’t worked together then, but little did
we know we both had the same ideas –
that everything was shit, and we should
fuck it up some more. The main thing
was to make rock and roll absurd. It was
to take anything that was serious and
mock it. Diamond Dogs, as I remember
it at the time, was trying to accomplish
some great mockery of rock ’n’ roll. It
seemed to be part of my manifesto at the
time, I don’t know why.’
Bowie talked at length about Rebel
Rebel, the major hit single from the
album, in a NY Rock interview, musing,
‘Rebel Rebel is just for me the funniest
song. I can’t, I just can’t conceive how
I wrote that now. I mean, I really must
have felt that at the time but... “Hot
tramp, I love you so, don’t give me grief ”.
I mean it’s really – it’s so flippant.’Once again, the album sleeve is
also worth talking about. This time it
featured a painting of Bowie as a half-
man, half-dog hybrid by French artist
Guy Peellaert. The original version of the
painting was actually banned from the
sleeve, as Bowie later explained in NY
Rock, ‘They airbrushed the genitalia from
the dog. It was by a French artist called
Guy Peellaert, who was extraordinary.
He put out a book called Rock Dreams
in that period, which was a great take on
his vision of rock artists. Unfortunately,
that particular dog, “the Diamond
Dog”, got castrated. It got returned now
that it’s out on Rykodisc – he’s with
equ ipment.’
The tour of the double concept
album came hot on the heels of its
release, and proved to be Bowie’s most
successful up to that point, lasting from
June to December 1974. A lavishly
produced affair with high-budget stage
production and theatrical special effects,
the Diamond Dogs tour was more of a
spectacle than a simple musical event,
and broke with contemporary practice for
rock concerts.
Bowie, however, soon tired of the
whole opulent affair, and when the
tour resumed after a summer break in
Philadelphia to record material for the
upcoming album, the Diamond Dogs
show no longer made sense, and several
changes were made, including band
changes and cancelled dates. That period
in his career had drawn to a close and
Bowie was fast moving towards a new
sound.This article is an extract from Sounds &
Visions, the David Bowie Special Edition of
Music Legends. Available now at issuu.com.In 1973 Bowie decided to dispense with the Spiders from Mars,
but still needed their help to make the Pin Ups album.DO YOU WANT SOME MORE...?
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